Jacob @ 11 Months

I can't believe what a little toddler my baby is becoming! He is so fun and sweet, and growing up way too fast! He is very active, hates sitting still. In fact he hates sitting at all anymore & just wants to stand up. The problem is, he still hasn't perfected pulling himself up, or sitting back down after he's up. So all day I have to stand him up against the table, hold him after he bumps his chin on the way down, then set him down again on his feet. He can pull himself up, especially on something a little lower, but usually he forgets.

He loves the sandbox & rocks & playing outside now, and surprisingly doesn't put much in his mouth, even though everything on the floor inside goes straight in the mouth. He loves to make huge messes out of things, spreading them all over with his chubby little hands as fast as he possibly can. He still loves splashing in the bath, too, getting as much water as possible all over the place!

He tries to be my little helper now, and pretty much goes wherever I go. He is always underfoot when I'm cooking. He can play just fine on his own until he sees me, then he needs me to pick him up.

He is always going under tables & chairs in pursuit of some crumb of food, or else a ball, and then gets stuck.

The end of July I finally saw two teeth popping in the bottom of his little mouth. He's been working on those for weeks and weeks.

The boy loves his food and is happy as long as he has something to eat. He still refuses baby food but will eat pretty much anything you put in front of him that he can stuff in his mouth. His favorites are bananas, Cheerios, Veggie straws (like Cheetos), peas & carrots, and graham crackers. 

He also loves music, and if he fusses in the car, I can turn on the music to calm him down. He freezes in place if he hears singing. This xylophone is his favorite toy in the nursery, although it could just be because he likes to hit things.

He has been sleeping in his crib in his own room (with Andrew) for the past three weeks now, although it took a few nights of adjustment. He sleeps through the night most of the time, but has been getting up between 6 & 6:30 every morning. I pray this is just a phase, because that is too early for this Mommy. His brother can entertain him in his crib for a few minutes but not for long.

August 6th he said what I would consider his first words. He can say "bye-bye"!

He is a super-fast crawler now and definitely gets into trouble wherever he goes. He can't just play with one or two toys-- he has to dump baskets out and have everything all over when he plays. He gets into cabinets and drawers, and empties my plastic plates out. He gets into the trash and pulls on electrical cords. He is definitely mischievous, but oh so cute!

Dakin Farms, Ice Cream & Apples

The last day of Grandma & Grandpa's visit, we did some driving. We went out to Dakin Farm, our favorite "Vermont"-stuff store.

On the way back we stopped for ice cream at Goody's, where the large cones are bigger than your head.

Then we went to pick apples. It's still a little early in the season, and it was a pretty warm day, but we found a really good early variety growing and had some fun picking a bag.

Never miss a chance for a good group photo!

Six Flags

We are fortunate enough to live only about 1 1/2 hours away from a Six Flags theme park. For the past two years, Leah and Andrew have done a reading program where they win a free Six Flags ticket for reading 6 hours throughout the year. I also got a free ticket as their "teacher." Last year we weren't able to use them, but this year, we took a visit from Grandma & Grandpa & Aunt Jenipher as an opportunity to go. The day dawned a little rainy and gloomy, but we were determined, and it ended up only raining about an hour in the afternoon, and the rain kept away the huge crowds so we barely had any lines for rides!

We first hit up the kids' area, where the kids ran as fast as they could to ride every one of the rides. And Daddy was the biggest kid of all!

After lunch was when it rained, but the kids didn't seem to mind being wet. They still wanted to ride. Jacob enjoyed the puddles, and the little kiddie water area.

This simple car ride must have been their favorite. They rode it at least 4 times in a row, and went back later to ride it again. And it just goes around a tiny little track. Abigail was fearless on the rides. She didn't hesitate to ride anything! 

Jacob stayed fairly happy the whole time! He even slept a little in the afternoon, from the comfort of his stroller, which he usually does NOT like being in. He seemed to love taking in all the sights and sounds.

Leah was the only one tall enough to ride the bumper cars. And she went around in circles!

Having so many adults made it easy to leave the kids a couple times to ride some more grown-up rides. I rode two roller coasters, once with Brett and once with Jenipher. Those two also rode a couple other coasters. It's been awhile since I've gone on something like that and it gave me a huge headache, but I had fun anyway! 

We took advantage of some of the gentler rides for some family time. We rode a train, a swan boat, and a sky lift. It sure was nice to have Grandma & Grandpa there with us! Jacob was sleeping during this ride, so Jenipher stayed back with he and Elena.

Jenipher and I decided to take the babies on a hot air balloon ride. We didn't realize, however, that they went up high and went around super fast. We hung on for dear life to those babies. Jacob didn't seem to mind, but I felt sick when it was over. It was pretty adventurous for Jacob's first ride.

We went back to the kids' area at the end of the day, after cotton candy and ice cream and who knows what other junk we ate! The kids were so happy and all said they had the best day ever! What a fun memory to hold onto.